Working in groups is not an easy thing to do, especially if you are not used to it from an early age. However, it's never too late to learn how to work together with others in order to achieve something positive, like finding a solution to a problem or a way to pursue your targets. One of the basic things to do is to agree on fundamental principles by which you will all abide, at least to some extent. Some of them are provided below to think about and discuss further. They can serve as a starting point to train yourselves on how to avoid tension and unnecessary arguments, while making the best use of your time together.
Listen well
Treat others as you want to be treated
Be prepared to change your mind, even a bit
Be kind, be well-intentioned
Try to walk in somebody else's shoes. It might change your outlook
Try to reach an agreement. Avoid unnecessary arguments.
Encourage interaction by asking a question or making a comment on somebody else’s idea.
The general rules of the aforementioned agreement should become context specific, as related to the English course and the group activities to be put into action inside the classroom. So, there are three basic rules to keep to while working together.
1. Keep your voice down.
2. Keep on task
3. Use English throughout the activity
Here are three different handouts you will be using during the in-class group activities. The 'Think-pair-share'handout concerns activities conducted between you and another person. The 'Round Robin'handout concerns a four-member group, working together towards a common goal. That is, to reach a consensus or agreement by combining all contributions and making all necessary adjustments in order to create something common. The 'Spidergram', on the other hand, looks a lot like the previous handout but it is slightly different, as it can be used as a note sheet for keeping record of different ideas, without the prerequisite of creating a common point of reference. For this reason, it can be used as the task sheet of a brainstorming activity between group members.
This is a set of group work cards to download, cut, laminate and hand over to students,which include specific tasks to take over during every and each activity.
Group work, among other things, means interacting with each other, communicating and discussing ideas and emotions. It is a natural human process in which we mainly use language along with eye contact, body posture, gestures and other paralinguistic elements, as we call them. However, conversation with other people is not an easy act to carry out successfully. In addition to explicit rules, there are many 'unwritten' rules we sometimes tend to bend or ignore, quite often unintentionally. For example, it's a good idea to acknowledge the previous speaker by adding something to his words, changing something or simply stating that we agree with them. Whatever our intention is, we make our message clear; that we have listened to the point they made and we valuethe sharing, no matter what our personal viewpoint is. Below you can findlinksto websites, videos and files that will help you a lot with improving your social and communicative skills. Enjoy!!!
How to agree, disagree, ask for help and other useful staff here ....
How to organize your thoughts in order to introduce a topic, summarize your ideas and other techniques here. Activities to practise your skills follow.
Here are some videos illustrating the best ways of having an argument, participating in a conversation successfully and communicating with others on a common topic. Watch and practise!!!
[Glitterfy.com - *Glitter Words*]
Working in groups is not an easy thing to do, especially if you are not used to it from an early age.
However, it's never too late to learn how to work together with others in order to achieve something positive, like finding a solution to a problem or a way to pursue your targets.
One of the basic things to do is to agree on fundamental principles by which you will all abide, at least to some extent. Some of them are provided below to think about and discuss further. They can serve as a starting point to train yourselves on how to avoid tension and unnecessary arguments, while making the best use of your time together.
The general rules of the aforementioned agreement should become context specific, as related to the English course and the group activities to be put into action inside the classroom. So, there are three basic rules to keep to while working together.
1. Keep your voice down.
2. Keep on task
3. Use English throughout the activity
Here are three different handouts you will be using during the in-class group activities. The 'Think-pair-share' handout concerns activities conducted between you and another person. The 'Round Robin' handout concerns a four-member group, working together towards a common goal. That is, to reach a consensus or agreement by combining all contributions and making all necessary adjustments in order to create something common. The 'Spidergram', on the other hand, looks a lot like the previous handout but it is slightly different, as it can be used as a note sheet for keeping record of different ideas, without the prerequisite of creating a common point of reference. For this reason, it can be used as the task sheet of a brainstorming activity between group members.
Group work, among other things, means interacting with each other, communicating and discussing ideas and emotions. It is a natural human process in which we mainly use language along with eye contact, body posture, gestures and other paralinguistic elements, as we call them.
However, conversation with other people is not an easy act to carry out successfully. In addition to explicit rules, there are many 'unwritten' rules we sometimes tend to bend or ignore, quite often unintentionally. For example, it's a good idea to acknowledge the previous speaker by adding something to his words, changing something or simply stating that we agree with them. Whatever our intention is, we make our message clear; that we have listened to the point they made and we value the sharing, no matter what our personal viewpoint is.
Below you can find links to websites, videos and files that will help you a lot with improving your social and communicative skills. Enjoy!!!
Here are some videos illustrating the best ways of having an argument, participating in a conversation successfully and communicating with others on a common topic. Watch and practise!!!